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Orks
Greenskins are one of the most dangerous alien races to plague the galaxy. Numerous beyond belief and driven always to fight and conquer, the greenskins threaten every single race in the galaxy. Orks are possibly the most warlike aliens in the 41st Millennium, and their number is beyond counting. Amid constant, seething tides of war and bloodshed, burgeoning Ork empires rise and fall. Mercifully most are short-lived, soon destroying themselves in a maelstrom of violence, but should the Orks ever truly unify, they would crush all opposition. The Orks’ unquenchable thirst for battle has always proved their downfall: historically, the Ork tribes have spent much of their time fighting amongst themselves, waging brutal wars with only the strongest surviving. On occasion, an Ork leader will emerge who is mighty enough to defeat his rivals and unite the warring tribes. His success draws other tribes to him, and soon a great Waaagh! is underway – partly a migration, partly a holy war that can exterminate the populations of entire star systems. When the Orks are on the rampage, the galaxy trembles, and in these dark days there are more Waaaghs! rising than ever before. THE ORK Orks have but one philosophy: might makes right. They believe that the weak must suffer the rule of the strong. Over the countless millennia in which the greenskins have waged their wars, not one Ork has ever doubted this for a single moment. This unshakeable self-belief is perhaps the most dangerous quality of the Orks, for they will never give up until they plunge the galaxy into an eternal war. The Orks rule their barbaric civilization with an iron fist. Ugly and violent creatures, they are the dominant life form of a race that includes the smaller Gretchin and Snotling sub-species. Orks see themselves as the toughest race in the galaxy, mightier by far than humans, Eldar or Tau. To prove their point, the Orks are more than willing to fight and kill everything that crosses their path. Orkoid physique itself is so robust that it can withstand tremendous punishment. They feel surprisingly little pain, even from the most grievous of wounds, enabling them to fight on whilst horrifically injured and even for a short while after being technically dead. It is believed by some who study these brutes, albeit from afar, that this goes some way to explaining the greenskins’ ultra-violent sense of humour. As pain and fear mean little to them, they are highly curious and amused by the reactions of their weaker foes as they hack them apart, the screams of terror contrasting with a deep throaty rumbling that, on occasion, could be mistaken for laughter from the Orks and their snickering brethren. The greenskin regenerative process itself is so powerful that an Ork who has been hacked to bits can simply be stitched back together, bewildered but ready to fight once more. Nothing but the most grievous wounds will put an Ork down for long, and burning them to ash is reputed to be the only way to make absolutely sure that they are gone for good. A typical Ork stands around the same height as a man, though he would be much taller were he to stand up straight instead of being hunched over, as is his normal stance, and his frame is extremely muscular and solid. An Ork’s arms are long and heavily thewed, knuckles almost scraping the floor as he lopes around, and his gnarled hands end in taloned fingers capable of tearing an enemy’s throat out with ease. The skin of an Ork is green and leather-tough, and his body is dotted with scars, scabs, pock- marks and parasites. His skull is extremely thick, able to absorb impacts that would cave in a human head. His heavy brow shades blood-red eyes, afire with the need to kill. Jagged fangs jut from a heavy jaw that would not look out of place upon a far larger predator, and when an Ork speaks, it is in a slow, gruff tone thick with saliva and guttural curses. His words are sparse, brutal and straight to the point. Many of the more civilised races of the galaxy speculate about where the seemingly omnipresent Ork race came from. Ork legend is generally passed down by the Runtherds, those who specialise in the breeding and training of Gretchin, Snotlings and other squiggly beasts. They speak of a legendary caste of greenskins who created the Orks of today as a warrior race to protect their own. Difficult as it is to believe, this ancient race was supposedly very intelligent, and held dominion over the other greenskins. They were said to be much smaller than their servants, and bred the Orks to be as strong and fierce as possible to protect them from predators and invaders. These mysterious figures, named as Brainboyz in some of the few Ork legends that exist, are said to have developed amazing technologies and directed the greenskins in their expansion across the stars. A great tragedy must have befallen them, however, for they do not exist today (if they ever did). Some Ork legends tell of a great plague that lasted for many centuries, causing the Brainboyz to die out or devolve. Others fondly imagine that they were even more warlike than their servants. These staunch believers violently assert that the Brainboyz took the biggest and best Orks going and set off to find the ultimate war. Perhaps they’re out there still, fighting somewhere beyond the stars. Whatever the truth, the Runtherds tell of how the Brainboyz took steps to preserve what they could of their knowledge. It is said that they used strange sciences to engineer pure knowledge into the bodies and minds of their slaves. Many amongst the Magos Biologis of the Imperium theorise that this is how the Orks retain such a relatively high level of technology, their technical skills hardwired into their genes. Whether or not the legends of the Runtherds or the theories of the Imperium contain a kernel of truth is largely irrelevant in any case. The Orks – though ignorant and brutish – are born survivors. They are resourceful and resilient in the extreme, and they couldn’t care less how they got that way. THE SIMPLE LIFE One of the greatest strengths the Orks possess is the simplicity with which they approach their existence. For an Ork, the universe is an incredibly straightforward place, free of the angst and worry that plagues most other races. Orks don’t try to influence their own destiny and get frustrated when plans don’t work out as expected. They don’t look for something to blame (except perhaps the nearest Gretchin or a hated rival tribe) and certainly do not reflect on weaknesses in their own way of doing things. They just try again a different way, usually because they have forgotten how they did it the last time. Thus the Orks make remarkable progress by trial and error, without counting the cost. Meanwhile other races steeped in high- flown philosophy fall into the same traps time and again, doomed to stagnate and decline, unless of course they are first conquered by the Orks. So long as the average Ork has someone to fight, someone bigger than him to tell him who to kill next, and someone smaller than him to beat up, he will know contentment. Orks don’t tend to go hungry as they can eat virtually anything, even grots, Snotlings or one another at a pinch. Greenskins have no concept of cannibalism or the moral outrage that accompanies it, as it is only natural that the bigger Orks should live at the cost of those weaker than themselves. With war and killing as their only real motivators, most Orks have little interest in gathering material wealth or luxuries. The one exception to this is a desire to possess ever bigger and louder weapons and vehicles. An Ork will go to almost any lengths to get his hands on a louder shoota or faster buggy. He will obsess over its acquisition until the exact moment he has it, at which point his eye will stray to something even bigger... In greenskin society, teeth are used as money and form the entire basis of the Ork economy. The teeth, or ‘teef’, must be big, sharp, ivory-like fangs to have any value – those of races such as humans or the Eldar are just too fiddly and pathetic to have any real worth. The Orks have used teeth as money since time immemorial. It is a natural form of currency, which is particularly useful as Orks shed and replace their teeth every few years. This means that the number of teeth in circulation never diminishes enough to create a shortage, and that no individual Ork can be reduced to dire poverty for too long. This simple approach to an issue most civilisations agonise about is typical of the pragmatic attitude of the Ork race. ‘The Orks are the pinnacle of creation. For them, the great struggle is won. They have evolved a society which knows no stress or angst. Who are we to judge them? We Eldar who have failed, or the humans, on the road to ruin in their turn? And why? Because we sought answers to questions that an Ork wouldn’t even bother to ask! We see a culture that is strong and despise it as crude.’ '- Uthan the Perverse, Eldar Philosopher' Category:Species